(PORTLAND, ORE. - Aug. 23, 2007) As the Bangladesh death toll from recent flooding climbs to nearly 600 people, Medical Teams International is deploying a Battleground, Wash., paramedic and a staff doctor to help thousands of families struggling in the aftermath.
David Seabrook, a firefighter and captain with the Vancouver Fire Department, and Dr. Wendy Dyment, an emergency health specialist at Medical Teams International, leave this Saturday for Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. Seabrook has served with Medical Teams International in Honduras and Sri Lanka in response to the 2004 tsunami.
They will provide mobile medical care, traveling by boat to communities where there is no access to medical care. Volunteers Dr. David and Debra Wukasch, a doctor and nurse respectively from the Seattle area, will join them for a month-long assignment. The team will carry in $21,000 in medical supplies, including antibiotics, IV kits, oral re-hydration salts and feeding tubes.
With the flood waters receding, a second wave of disaster brings deadly waterborne diseases—a diarrhea outbreak, malaria, and skin and eye diseases—in its wake. More than 73,000 people in Bangladesh have contracted diarrhea, a condition that can turn deadly quickly without immediate medical intervention.
Media: Interviews are available with Seabrook and Dyment from 6 to 6:30 a.m.,
Saturday, Aug. 25, at the Delta Airlines ticket counter, Portland Airport.
"These next few weeks are critical in reaching people who are without medical care, clean water and adequate food," says Joe DiCarlo, director of emergency relief at Medical Teams International. "Our volunteers will be able to care for flood victims in hard to access areas as well as assist local doctors who are overwhelmed with critically-ill patients."
The agency is working with Koinonia, an aid agency that oversees a major hospital and three clinics in the region. A second volunteer team is expected to depart for the region in the following weeks.
To contribute to the South Asia Flood Fund, please call 1-800-959-8325, give online at our secure Web site: www.medicalteams.org or mail gifts to PO Box 10, Portland, OR 97207. Donations can also be made at any US Bank office.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
